Steve Haffner

Steve Haffner helps professionals elevate their performance by debunking their own illusions. Audience members learn to spot and overcome the hidden self-deceptions, mental shortcuts, and cognitive biases that influence their ability to perform at their best and achieve their goals.

Haffner’s background and experience is quite unique. He had a successful 30 year career as a corporate professional and executive, creating I.T. solutions as a programmer/analyst, systems engineer, business analyst and vice-president for organizations such as EDS, Mercer and Humana.

Then in 2011 Haffner launched his own performance and speaking business. As an entertainer he presented magic and mentalism shows for family and corporate audiences, including 3M, Amazon, and Edward Jones. As a decision performance specialist, Haffner’s clients include businesses and associations in a wide variety of industries and disciplines, serving business owners, executives, educators, HR professionals and more.

Through his study of magical illusion Haffner learned the secrets to deceiving the human brain. As a speaker, he shares how those same mental distortions that create illusions affect our everyday thinking, perceptions and decisions as well.

His keynote, breakout and workshop programs draw from not only his own experience, but also from research in the fields of psychology, neuroscience and behavioral economics. This combination of insight and experience allows Haffner to help professionals improve their decision making, trust building, productivity, and ability to handle disruption.

Haffner’s one-of-a-kind presentation style combines useful content with humor, personal stories, and magical effects. He shows the audience how their attention and perceptions are easily manipulated, then shares strategies for preventing those “mental errors” from undermining their performance as professionals.